The Guardian’s coverage of trans issues has repeatedly come under fire (Bethany Clarke/Getty)
A third transgender person has resigned from The Guardian amid a long and bitter row over the newspaper’s problematic coverage of transgender issues.
The woman dramatically announced her resignation in front of colleagues in a packed staff meeting on Tuesday, HuffPost UK understands.
It came just hours after The Guardian published an opinion piece by Suzanne Moore entitled: “Women must have the right to organise. We will not be silenced.”
The controversial column was written in response to the cancellation of Selina Todd’s expected address at a feminist conference after Todd was accused of transphobia.
Writing in defence of Todd, Moore equated the movement against transgender rights with the protests against convicted child rapist Roman Polanski.
The comparison with sexual predators was furthered by the decision to head the article with a photo of an anti-Roman Polanski protest in Paris.
This column was said to be “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for the former Guardian employee. She had reportedly handed in her notice a few weeks earlier, but chose to speak out in the busy news meeting to draw attention to the increasing anti-trans views being published by the paper.
She is preceded by two other transgender employees who recently quit the Guardian citing “institutional transphobia”. They claimed that the Guardian is “an incredibly transphobic organisation” that has caused “harm” to trans people through its reporting on trans issues.
The matter has been the subject of several internal battles, beginning with a now-notorious editorial in October 2018.
In the article The Guardian set out its stance on GRA reform, suggesting trans rights and women’s rights were on a collision course.
The backlash was swift – in a retaliatory editorial, US Guardian journalists said they were “dismayed” by the UK Guardian’s stance on trans rights, which in their view “advanced transphobic viewpoints” that harm trans people.
As well as this, the Guardian has increasingly touted the idea that a “trans lobby” is harming children – a theme often seen in anti-trans coverage by right-wing newspapers.
A Guardian News & Media spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “We do not comment on discussions at our morning editorial conference.”
For those who are angry with The Guardian’s recent coverage of trans issues and want to show their support for transgender and non-binary people, here are some proactive things you can do.